Thursday, January 07, 2010

Knitting Without Tears

I've been reading Elizabeth Zimmerman'sKnitting Without Tears while nursing the baby down to sleep at night, which has it's pros and cons. The positive side of it is that I am reading something both interesting and educational. I used to be a bookaholic. Okay, perhaps I still am, since the only thing that rivals my yarn hoard is my book hoard, but the point is that before the arrival of the baby I actually had time to amass and read these books, rather than simply amass. They say that when you have a child that it takes up time that would otherwise be spent on other things. This is true for obvious reasons. What is hard to predict, however, is what shape this will take. Some people say that the knitting suffers. I find this not to be the case, especially now that the baby enjoys being in her walker for periods of time during the day. For me, reading as a daily activity got pushed out of circulation. But thanks to our new evening schedule (I wash baby, daddy oils and pj's baby, I nurse baby down to sleep and read while laying with her once she's stopped fussing) I am opening books again. Very good, illuminating books. Which brings us to the cons of the situation.

Knitting Without Tears makes me want to knit everything in her book. Just exactly as she tells me to, and ASAP. I thought I was a pretty knowledgeable knitter, but she really opened my eyes to some fundamental things that I am shocked I've overlooked for so long. Like that backwards loops aren't just for adding stitches at the end of rows or buttonholes - it can stand in for an M1. Simple, obvious, and totally overlooked by me. So here I am at nights, engrossed and gobsmacked by this book, a six month old baby firmly latched on to my boob while I lay in the bed, unable to get up and get to work exploring these sudden revelations.

It is, in a word, torture.

I finished it last night, thank goodness. Now I am waiting for another Elizabeth Zimmerman book in the mail. Because I am a masochist.